By Peter KUZNICK and Ivana NICOLIC HUGHES
If we can imagine such a world, we can create it.
That the U.S. is awash in hypocrisy and mendacity should come as no surprise to the people of the world who have watched the U.S. launch one war and/or regime change operation after another over the past 80 years. As former president Jimmy Carter acknowledged in 2019, after receiving a phone call from Donald Trump bemoaning the rise of the China century, he (Carter) didn't fear the Chinese who hadn't been at war since 1979; it was the U.S. that had constantly been at war. The late president calculated that the U.S. had only enjoyed 16 years of peace in its then 242 year-long existence, making it "the most warlike nation in the history of the world."
But that dismal record has not deterred the U.S. from touting its moral superiority and lecturing other countries about the need to adhere to the so-called "rules-based international order" that the U.S. created but refuses to follow when its own "interests" are at stake. Former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson demonstrated this hubris best following the post-WWI settlement conference at Versailles when he said, "at last the world knows the United States as the savior of the world." That smug refrain-the bloated and blind self-righteousness captured in the notion of "American exceptionalism," the idea that the United States is not only different than all other nations, it is better than all other nations-has been echoed repeatedly by American leaders who believe it entitles them to use whatever means are necessary to maintain global hegemony. As former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, not long after justifying the killing of a half million Iraqi children via U.S. sanctions, "If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future."
With leaders like Wilson, Truman, the Dulles brothers, Johnson, Nixon, Kissinger, Brzezinski, Reagan, George W. Bush, the Clintons (especially Hillary), Albright, and Biden, the U.S. has long deserved the Nobel Prize for hypocrisy. Now with Trump back in office, U.S. hypocrisy and mendacity have both risen to truly unprecedented levels.
But to make matters worse, in west Asia, the U.S. has joined Bibi Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing advisors in a war of choice based, like so many previous U.S. wars, on blatant lies about the imminent threat posed, in this case, by Iran's nuclear weapons and missile programs-lies that had been thoroughly debunked by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the U.S. intelligence community. That the U.S., with more than 5000 nuclear weapons and a unique responsibility for the nuclear age and some of its worst crimes, and Israel, with 90 nuclear warheads or more, an arsenal considered to be "undeclared," feel justified in leveling much of Iran on the fabricated pretext that Iran might have the propensity to develop nuclear weapons takes hypocrisy and impunity to an entirely new level.
The C.I.A. has reported that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. That same year, Ayatollah Khamenei first issued his fatwa against Iran ever developing or attaining a nuclear weapon-a ban that was in place prior to this and last year's attacks on Iran. Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iran nuclear deal, which Obama painfully negotiated in 2015 with the help of Russia and other countries, Iran was to keep its uranium enrichment to 3.67%, far below the levels needed to develop a nuclear weapon, for 15 years. Following the deal, Iran was being subjected to the most intensive inspection regime ever instituted, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But Trump walked away from the JCPOA in 2018, setting the stage for the violent confrontations that have marked his second administration.
Last June, the U.S. and Israel subjected Iran to a 12-day bombing campaign that Trump claimed had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program. Now the U.S. and Israel are again bombing Iran even more mercilessly. Gone are the days of targeting mainly the nuclear sites, which had risked a catastrophe of a different proportion. Such "strategic" sites have now been replaced by a girls' school, at least 13 hospitals, a sports complex, and many other civilian targets.
Israel had done everything it could to stop the U.S. from signing the JCPOA in the first place and encouraged Trump to withdraw from the agreement during his first term. Now Netanyahu finally helped drag the U.S. into a war with Iran-something Netanyahu has been attempting to do for decades-but other U.S. presidents had the good sense to resist. Netanyahu is the one who has been warning that Iran was "weeks" away from a nuclear weapon on a regular basis since the 1990s. Trump and Netanyahu began their bombing campaign despite the fact that the Oman foreign minister declared that the two sides had made "significant progress" and were very close to a deal. According to Minister al-Busaidi, Iran would have agreed to get rid of its highly enriched uranium that could potentially be used for a weapon and roll back all other potentially threatening aspects of its research program. Trump and Netanyahu, thinking a military victory would showcase their ferocity more than a diplomatic one, opted to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and unleashed this immoral, illegal, and absolutely unnecessary war.
No one, and especially those who like us, have advocated for nuclear disarmament and the abolition of nuclear weapons, should want to see Iran develop its own nuclear arsenal. But no one should be surprised if Iranian leaders believe that this would be their only credible means of defense against another invasion. Clearly, after being bombed twice within eight months when they were in the midst of seemingly productive negotiations, the Iranians have little appetite for being sucker-punched a third time. But given the stakes and the global risks from further escalation on top of the damage already being done, a diplomatic solution must be imposed upon all parties.
This should happen immediately. If the U.S. and Israeli regimes learn that the use of force under phony pretenses turns them into universally despised pariah states, so much the better. If the Iranian regime gives up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the world will cheer.
But we must all agree that in the nuclear age, war is not an option. We must reembrace diplomacy and find a path toward peaceful development that will serve the interests of not just those involved, but all of humanity. As wise statesmen have said, human beings created these survival-threatening crises; human beings can also choose to live together and resolve differences peacefully. If we can imagine such a world, we can create it.
Original article: countercurrents.org